(LPAC)—Reacting sharply to the guidelines issued by the US Treasury Department to the World Bank, not to lend money to the nations applying for coal-fired power generation, executive directors representing China and India, in association with their colleagues representing at least another 88 nations, sent a letter to the World Bank arguing that their first priority is alleviating poverty. To achieve that end, the letter said, access to plentiful and inexpensive coal-fired energy is vital for all nations. "The Bank should be concerned about climate change only to the extent it impinges upon the efforts of the developing countries toward achieving poverty alleviation and economic growth," the directors wrote. The US Treasury letter has called for the World Bank to "remove barriers and build demand for no, or low, carbon resources" in borrowing nations.

A similar attack was also launched at the Davos World Economic Forum by the Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who told the audience that diversion of food grains for generation of bio-fuels subverts the need for food security. He told the session that of the 1.5 billion people being denied access to commercial energy, 500 million people live in India. India is focusing on developing nuclear and non-conventional energy sources and has set a target to generate 20,000 MW of power using of nuclear fission by 2020. Sharma said this issue was not properly addressed at the Copenhagen Summit, and, if only mercantile interests are allowed to steer the agenda, it would not be in the interest of the global good.

"Poverty is the biggest polluter," he said as reported by Press Trust of India.